Since Tom Brettell took the reigns of the Robbinsville High School baseball team in 2008, the Ravens’ rivalry with Allentown has turned into one of the best in the Colonial Valley Conference.

And when one team takes all three games of the season, like Allentown did last year, and both of this year’s scheduled meetings take place in a six-day stretch, that has a way of only increasing the rivalry.

Six days after outlasting the Redbirds in an error-filled and wind-blown afternoon, the Ravens took the second scheduled meeting by riding a stellar performance from Michael Fischer and mixing in some timely small-ball to secure a 3-1 victory at Daniel Venet Field.

“Last year, we opened with them in the county tournament, and Michael and Stephen (Adams) faced off against each other and they won 2-0,” Brettell said. “Basically, it was the same game that just went the other way. They put it on us last year, so I told these guys that it was about how far they’ve grown in the year to see if we could turn the tables on them with the same guy on the mound.”

Fischer, a junior, went the distance, allowing seven hits and one earned run. He walked one, struck out seven and threw 72 of his 107 pitches for strikes. The right-hander relied heavily upon his curveball in key spots to keep the Redbirds off-balance.

“In warm-ups, I turned to Fish (assistant coach Jeff Fisher), who was helping me warm up and I said, ‘The curveball’s moving a lot, so we might want to go there a lot today,’” Fischer said. “It was a good out-pitch for me, and I was able to throw it where I needed to in the spots I needed to today.”

Fischer got a double-play ball to escape the first inning unscathed, fired a one-two-three second and worked around solo base-runners in the third, fourth and fifth innings.

Fischer would receive all the offensive support he would need in the top of the fourth inning. Ryan Fischer led off with a walk and advanced to second on Anthony DeChiara’s single to right field. Both runners advanced when Michael Fischer reached on a sacrifice bunt and a throwing error. Matt DeAngelis came through with a two-run single to left field, and one batter after a Steve Dranoff sacrifice bunt, Tom McKiernan executed a suicide squeeze.

“I walked up to Steve Dranoff, and he’s a big kid, a kid who’s going to Muhlenberg to play football,” Brettell said. “I told him he was bunting, and he looked at me and said, ‘I know, and I’ll get the job done.’ And then I walked over to Tom McKiernan and said that, if the spot came up, he was going to squeeze, and that was one of the best squeeze bunts on a high pitch that I’ve ever seen. That’s who we are. Early in the season, that stuff wasn’t happening, and when it wasn’t happening, the scoreboard was ending up the other way for us.”

Allentown got on the board in the sixth inning when Dan DeMonte singled, moved to second on an error, stole third and scored on Pete Marsicano’s groundout to first base.

Brett Sandford led off the bottom of the seventh with an infield single, and Jake Morse worked a walk to put the tying run on first. Fischer rebounded to strike out Steven Alpaugh and got a huge break when DeMonte’s bouncer to the right side hit Morse for the second out of the inning. Fischer finished off the complete game by getting Brian Tobie to ground out to second base.

“We’re coming together as a team,” Fischer said. “It just feels differently with the way we’re playing now. Before, it was kind of different. Nothing was really jelling. But now we’re in a groove, and everyone’s jelling and getting hot at the right time.”